October 31, 2004

My big idea

So, I’ve been in Durango, Colorado for the past few weeks working nonstop for an event happening the day after tomorrow. I wrote in an earlier post about realizing that I’m going to be mostly alone on election night, after my work for the day is done. The big parties are all in Denver and Colorado Springs and I know very few people in this town.

And, I was thinking: what if I didn’t watch the results come in? I’ve been wanting to go to the nearby hot springs but haven’t been able to because of my crazy schedule. I was supposed to go with my friend Frank White from Brooklyn, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be making the trip out here. What if I finished working and just went to soak in hot water in the cold Colorado weather? I wonder if anyone would interrupt my chilling out to tell me who won. I wonder if I’d be able to contain myself from trying to find out. I can just find out when I get back to my room that night. It will remind me of being a kid and waking up in the morning and my parents telling me who won. Do you guys think I’ll be able to do it, or will the junkie in me need her fix?

Quote of the Day

And now, we have convincing proof to those who said that Bush’s foreign policy was actually a benefit to Al-Qaeda, in that it supposedly inflamed the Arab world against America: here’s Osama bin Laden himself, trying to declare a truce with Americans, and sounding less like Saladin and more like some over-earnest college professor with anti-Bush stickers on his Volvo.

The left is losing it.

How do I know? Just today, two fabulous, well-thought out emails, both from people in NY and both to my email address associated with my other site. I don’t need to let people know that any and all hatemail may be printed, right?

From dagknabbit@nyc.rr.com
Subject: may bush burn in hell for the lives he’s taken in iraq

women, children and our own young men and women.

From jrabuse@nyc.rr.com
Subject: you should be ashamed

A vote for bush is a vote for facism, why wont the republican admiistration of New York give 1st responders a fair raise,exploit 9-11 all you want,we all know the truth

I am ashamed. I am shamed that I have to share a city with these lunatics.

The party of ‘the people’….

Throughout the battlegrounds, Kerry’s mostly paid army of organizers was pitted against Bush’s largely volunteer-driven team to get supporters to the polls Tuesday.

And speaking of the battlegrounds, if they do break for Kerry and give him the presidency on Tuesday, they will have voted for someone they mostly can’t stand. His favorability ratings are 45 or under in all the swing states. Ohio has the most bizarre result, with the same amount of people feeling ‘neutral’ towards Kerry as feel favorably, 41%.

October 30, 2004

The perfect description

This could be seen as an attempt by Bin Laden to influence the election against Bush; his mocking comments towards the President certainly make it come off that way.

But I don’t think it will work, because of a theory I’ll call “The Batman Effect”.

Batman is constantly trying to put the Joker out of business for good. But if you haven’t noticed, he generally never quite manages. The Joker is never, ever truly vanquished; he’ll always be back for more.

But when the Joker’s on the loose again, you don’t stop to think “Damn, Batman still hasn’t managed to get rid of this guy, we better find somebody else.” You don’t say “get me Aquaman on the phone.” You think about the only guy who actually does something about the Joker, even if it hasn’t been a permanent solution: the only guy who’s been able to do the clown some damage and set back his schemes a ways.

You put up the damned Bat Signal and hope that Batman answers the call.

She is someone you should run from in the street.

She’s the kind of person that doesn’t know how to park on the right side of the street and is completely impressed that others have this skill.

She’s the kind of person that, after supporting Dennis Kucinich in the primaries, decides to go volunteer for Kerry/Edwards in a solidly red state, with has no other big competitive races happening (unlike, say, South Dakota).

Quote of the Day

You know, it’s sorta funny, isn’t it, that Saddam Hussein and OBL could never work together because they disagreed on a few minor points over the proper way to kill Christians, Jews, and problematic Muslims, and yet Rove and bin Ladin seem to get on so swimmingly.

Especially no ‘angryness’.

Teacher kicks Fort Lewis College student over GOP shirt

While talking with friends, a girl at his table asked to see the sweatshirt, O’Donnell said. After showing his table the back of the shirt and the phrase, people at a neighboring table asked to see it. O’Donnell said he knew someone sitting at the other table. While modeling for the other table, he said, a woman, later identified as Spero, approached from behind and kicked him in the calf.

O’Donnell did not know Spero, and the kick caught him by surprise. Not one to mind a good political argument, O’Donnell nevertheless said, “To physically take that out on someone because you disagree with them, that is completely wrong.”

After the blow, O’Donnell said, “She said she should have kicked me harder and higher.”

The questions raised by bin Laden’s video.

The thing about working on an election, actually in an election, is that you really can’t take the pulse of the electorate. I mean, of people who are not politically obsessed, that you would interact with in your every day life if you weren’t focused like a laser on getting every person with an (R) next to their name to vote. Whenever I need the non-politico opinion, I call my brother and his friends in Brooklyn. They know there is an election on, they’re all going to vote, but they made their decision on or around 9/12/01 and it’s unlikely to change now. So, they follow it, in terms of reinforcing the idea that Kerry is weak and Bush is strong and call it a day at that. My brother went to look at cars today, hoping to purchase one this weekend. I doubt he has bin Laden on his mind. It didn’t come up when we spoke today. I do know he’s chosen a white one with black leather.

My point, is that I don’t know how the bin Laden tape is going to play to ‘regular’ people. I think it can go a couple of different ways.

1. People hear bin Laden say that American security is in American hands and they will be safe so long as they don’t war with Muslim countries. Forget the political implications of this. I’m not worried about John Kerry being elected (much). I’m worried about Americans losing their nerve over Iraq. I can’t sense how Americans are feeling. Are they over the whole terrorism thing? Are they willing, like Dawn Summers, to give the terrorists what they want? Do they just want to pretend the Middle East, and the cesspool it occupies, doesn’t exist? Do we want that ‘return to normalcy’ that Peggy Noonan wrote about? And, will voters like my brother and his friends who want us to ‘win’ this war, see an isolationist retreat as a win? It’s not that I think they will go wobbly, it’s that they were just a few miles away that September day and I know they never, ever want to see anything like that again. What if they got a guarantee that they wouldn’t? What would they give up?

Or

2. Do Americans still want to have bin Laden’s head on a stake? Will they not rest until we do? Do they know that the war on terrorists is going to be long and hard and have setbacks and death? Most importantly, do they understand the war in Iraq was a central part of our larger war? Or, has it gotten muddled in the ‘no war for oil’, ‘he’s just doing this to please his father’, ‘there were no WMD’, ‘1000 dead soldiers since the Mission Accomplished banner’, ‘did you see that soldier tripped and fell in Fallujah, damn that Bush can’t do anything right’ nonsense? Do they know that simply ending Saddam’s reign isn’t enough? That the Democracy that we must establish in that country is the real payment to protect ourselves? Do they know that bin Laden will have other demands if we give in to this one and retreat?

I think option 1 is a lot more likely to happen under a Kerry presidency. I’m not saying that Kerry will necessarily cut and run, but I am saying that if the population runs scared on staying in Iraq to finish the job, I know which of the two men running for the presidency will have the will to complete it anyway.

October 29, 2004

Test your campaign obsession

Go Thune!

I’m watching Tom Daschle on CSPAN right now and he’s talking about things that are wrong with South Dakota and I realize his point is ‘re-elect me, I can fix all that’ but hasn’t he been Senator forever? Why would he talk about all that is wrong in SD and then ask to be reinstated to his job? Hasn’t he had enough time to make things good? If I was his speechwriter, I wouldn’t let him talk about the problems, I would get him talking about what he’s done with his years in the Senate. Because, right now, he seems like he’s done zero. It’s also interesting because he really can’t criticize Bush, seeing as SD will be a landslide for the president. Funny.

Update: They just showed two ads from the race. Who knew John Thune was so good looking? I would say he’s the best looking candidate running this season, right ladies?

And, it’s funny, again because SD is so Republican, that Daschle’s ad features him standing next to Trent Lott.

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